even with out the Celt as an available race is the blade shade still possible ?! at this patch anyways

No S/C charge available atm for hib. So no

i would put +15 strength to your lurikeen and maybe 10 con and play it with pierce until Uthgard gets shrouded isles. Then there is stag femur (if it's a 1.65 item?) and you can switch to swords.

my thing is that nightshade n rangers will be loosing the evade stun so figure maybe blade shades might come out to play ? just was trying to think of something a lil different

Agreed. My main targets in RvR will be other stealthers, so I'm going blade for the extra damage vs my priority pvp targets.

Plus, blades look awesome

Why should pierce ns and ranger lose evade stun? Evade stun on live servers was taken away long after 1.65.

Bladeshades will always be slightly behind pierce shades - even when str/con charges become available. Bladeshades shine against other stealthers because of slash damage. However Infs and SBs will negate this bonus due to str/con debuff poison hitting bladeshades much harder than pierce.

At the end you'll be having a slight advantage when fighting hunters. Aagainst all other stealthers pierce will be doing more or at least equal damage.

Imho it's not worth it - unless you want to play something exotic.

Blade Shades and Rangers became alot more powerful with the new RAs and TOA

The new RAs allowed aug str to be greatly increased for blades while pierce would have to spend double the points getting aug str and aug dex to gain the same amount of benefit.

TOA allowed you to get 25 more str cap, Pierce needed to get 25 more str and dex cap to get the same return. SO blades users could generally go for str and con cap to be more powerful. TOA also introdeced superior blade artifact weapons.

But back at the time we are playing at your dex will generally be much higher and allow you to have a decently higher weapon skill with pierce. SO pierce = more damage and defense penetration, especially if your using the dex/qui charge. Rangers have both dex/qui and str buff so they gain about the same threw buffs but your base dex will always be higher for these class progressions

i couldnt agree to a degree however u will do plus dmg to sb's n neut dmg to inifi's yea str con will hurt but still think its viable and u can win

NoHealsForYou wrote:i couldnt agree to a degree however u will do plus dmg to sb's n neut dmg to inifi's yea str con will hurt but still think its viable and u can win

Your basing your spec off of only fighting 2 enemy classes out of what like 28?

Yes, enemy assasssins were who you fought the most but that was only because of New Frontiers. In NF you could port straight to your last keep and because of this you would camp the bridges as the hotspots to the docks. Because of this you met enemy stealth there the most.

Old Frontiers was different. That realm had to run out from their realm gate, For hib you could wait anywhere along the long path to Emain and pick people off, rarely would you ever encounter an enemy stealther because the path was so great unlike a fixed spot like NF bridges. Yes the milegates were hotspots but much more active with all classes and visables compared to what you found on NF bridges with mostly stealth.

very true but dont think a blade shade could take down a visi ? any tank would obviously be insanely hard lol

why should a NS not be able to take down visable (light)tanks? We got viper and probably many people will get wild arcana. Ofc it depends on the enemy RA-spec.